Authors: Lucy Francis
Travis took both her hands in his and her pulse skittered.
Oh, God, she’d missed him so much. “But there was no way to protect myself from
you. That first day you smiled at me, you have no idea. You ripped right
through me. You opened me up all the way to the core, and what blew my mind was
that you accepted me. And you scared me so much that I pushed back.
“I’ll be honest with you, sweetheart. You still scare the
hell out of me. But I have to trust what you show me is real, because I’ve
never seen anything in you that isn’t real. Even now, you’re sitting there
looking at me with such calmness. How do you do that?”
She smiled at him, her heart soaring at his closeness, his
openness. She’d dared to hope that he’d find his way out of his morass, that
he’d come back to her. To have him here, now, filled her soul to bursting with
joy. “I’m calm because I’m completely aware of what I have and what I want.
What was my brother’s condition that you mentioned earlier?”
“He said he’d only let me in if I was absolutely certain how
I feel.”
Her heart skipped. “And are you?”
“One hundred percent.”
He left the love seat and took a knee in front of her. Time
slowed and her heartbeat pulsed frantically in her ears. His deep blue gaze
held her in place.
Oh, God, yes, please.
“Andri.” His hands trembled slightly around hers. “I want
you in my life. I want to fall asleep with you in my arms and wake up with you
the next morning, forever. I need you more than I can explain. I love you.”
He released one hand and reached into his pocket. He took
her hand again, placing something warm and hard in her palm. “Andromeda,” he
said, his voice ragged. “Please. Be my wife.”
In her hand lay a gorgeous ring of platinum leaves, woven
around a stunning square diamond, smaller diamonds nestled between the leaves.
She closed her fingers over the shining symbol and screamed, “Yes!”
Andri threw herself into Travis’s arms, and he caught her,
laughing. “I do love your enthusiasm.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” she said, her voice growing softer, until
she breathed
yes
against his mouth. Then his lips
captured hers, a hungry groan issuing from his throat as he kissed her. She
fiercely returned his kiss, her tongue seeking his. Her entire frame shuddered
with need.
In the one remaining part of her brain that still
functioned, it occurred to Andri that Dmitri should have made an appearance by
now. Shei pulled back far enough to capture Travis’s gaze. “Did you tell Dmitri
what you were planning to do? Because he didn’t come running when I screamed
like a crazy woman.”
“Nope. I just showed him the ring.”
“Cool.” And then the ability to think in simple words was
lost in the heat of his kiss.
She had gone to Utah seeking a safe haven. He had come into
her life needing asylum, too, and together, they had found the refuge they both
desperately needed. As Andri pulled her husband-to-be to his feet, she knew
they would shelter each other forever.
“What are you saying?” Andri’s mom, Zoe Miller, shrieked in
his mother’s kitchen, where she, Andri, and Sophia were supposed to be chatting
and making dinner. “You’ve never made him baklava? How is that possible?”
Travis laughed at the dismay and outrage in Zoe’s voice. He
sat on the recliner in the great room, putting the foot rest up as Zoe
strode in, hands gesturing dramatically as she carried on in Greek. She was a
tiny thing, an inch or so shorter than Andri, her hair impossibly black for her
age. This was the second time she’d left Phoenix and come for a visit since
he’d asked Andri to marry him last September, and while she could be very
entertaining, he didn’t mind driving her back to the airport when the time came
as well. Andri was right. Her mom was a bit of a diva.
Andri came into the room, twisting her long, gorgeous hair
into a ponytail. “Ma, really, it isn’t my best dish. He likes my spanakopita,
and I make tzatziki all the time.” His stomach rumbled at the mention of food.
If dinner was dependent on Zoe staying focused in the kitchen, it might be a
while before he ate.
Zoe ranted and gesticulated at Andri until his fiancée was
pinching the bridge of her nose in an obvious bid for patience. Suddenly, her
mom turned and marched over to stand at his side, looking down at him. She put
on a lovely smile. “Travis, I apologize for my daughter.” Her tone had shifted
into perfect sweetness and light, and he reconsidered Andri’s description. Zoe
was a
lot
of a diva.
His future mother-in-law grasped his hand with one of hers,
patting his forearm with the other. “I can assure you she makes an excellent
baklava. It’s something every Greek woman should know, and she promises to
prove that she does and make it for tomorrow’s dessert.”
“Thank you, Zoe.” He smiled, giving her hand a squeeze,
turning up his own charm. He’d had to work a bit to win her over the first time
they met, but he knew how to talk to her now. “What I most want right now is to
dig into your cooking. Whatever you’re making smells fantastic.”
She blushed, a dusting of pink that reminded him of Andri,
the first time they met. Zoe patted his arm again. “Such a charmer. Let me go
check the lamb. It should be ready soon.”
As she left, Travis shifted his gaze back to Andri, who
leaned against the wall, pulling her pink cardigan close around her. Warmth and
happiness glowed in her expressive brown eyes when she smiled at him. It didn’t
matter that she wore an old pair of jeans, didn’t have any makeup on, beat him
in every video game except the racing ones, and had made him agree to watch her
favorite British TV shows and learn to fly fish before she would set a wedding
date. She was perfect. Even her flaws were perfect. Well, perfect for him.
That’s all that mattered.
He opened his arms to her. “Come here, sweetheart.”
Andri joined him, and he grabbed her hips. She shrieked as
he pulled her onto his lap, then giggled. Travis nuzzled her neck, breathing in
her scent. He drew his tongue along the shell of her ear and she whimpered
softly. Her breath hitched when he shifted under her, ensuring she felt what
she’d done to him, without even trying.
While Zoe was in town, she stayed with Andri. Which left him
sleeping in his own home, in his own bed, very much alone. They’d both snuck
out from work for a couple of lunch quickies, but he was tiring of sleeping by
himself.
He set his teeth against her earlobe, making her breath
catch again. “I miss you, Andromeda.”
She adjusted her position, sliding her hips over him, and he
stifled a groan. “Miss you too,
kardia mou.
So, so,
so much.”
A snicker and the gentle clearing of a throat snagged his
attention away from Andri. His mother walked further into the room and settled
lightly on the sofa. Travis didn’t mind the distraction too much. His mother
had changed in the last year. Not as much as he’d hoped, of course. She was
still cool and a bit distant much of the time, but he understood now that’s who
she was. But he’d developed a loving connection with her that still surprised
him some days. He’d caught glimpses of the garden in her, the free, fun woman
inside the elegant, controlled exterior, and he found happiness in that.
Sophia looked at her tablet, sliding her finger to navigate
the screens. “I apologize for interrupting, my dears, but if we don’t finalize
the last of these details, you will literally be late for your own wedding.”
When his mother had offered to be their wedding planner, it
seemed like the obvious choice. She loved planning events, handling their wedding
had brought a delight to her eyes he’d never seen before, and she’d taken care
of details Travis, and so far Andri, too, would never have thought about. But
he hadn’t anticipated that in her formidable hands, his idea of an intimate,
understated event would be tossed aside in favor of a Sophia Holt-level soiree.
Luckily, she’d agreed to a firm two hundred guest limit. Most of that number
were family.
Andri turned to face his mother, grinning as they went over
last minute planning. When they finished, Sophia rose to help get Zoe’s dinner
on the table. Travis held Andri back. He heard the front door open, announcing
Rachel’s arrival. Danny was reading in Dad’s old office, so someone would have
to call him to dinner.
For the moment, though, he and his bride-to-be were alone.
He pressed his lips against her cheek. “I love you.”
She looked at him, tracing her fingertips along his jaw.
“Love you, too.”
“Can’t wait to marry you.”
“Me too.”
“Wish we’d eloped.”
She giggled. “Me too.”
Travis gently pulled on her ponytail until she arched her
neck. He kissed the heated skin over her throat and she threaded her fingers
into his hair. “Can’t wait to get you back in my bed for the night where you
belong,” he whispered against her skin.
She groaned. “Two more weeks.”
Two weeks of sneaky sex and then they’d be married and Zoe
would head back to Phoenix. It would be the longest fourteen days of his entire
life.
Andri kissed his lips, then laughed softly. “Are you ever
going to tell Ma that you don’t like baklava?”
He shook his head. “And have her realize I’m not the perfect
son-in-law? No way.”
****
Thank you for reading Finding
Refuge.
Watch for Rachel’s story, Seeking
Shelter, coming Spring, 2013.
If you enjoyed Finding Refuge, I would appreciate it if you
would help others enjoy it, too.
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Lucy
Lucy Francis grew up with characters living in her head,
clamoring for attention. Whether those characters were elves, knights, aliens
or earthlings, she listened and wrote their tales, which always included love.
She still listens, plays matchmaker, and scribbles the resulting stories. Lucy
has lived all over the United States, but calls Utah home. She lives with her
husband, five children, and a pet menagerie that once included nine different
species. She loves horses, fixing broken things, Doctor Who, and tending the
urban forest she planted in her front yard.
Visit Lucy Francis at
http://www.lucyfrancis.net
http://www.facebook.com/lucyfrancisauthor
http://www.goodreads.com/lucyfrancis
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @LucysKissyBooks
Mending
Fences
By
Lucy Francis
She was the first woman to turn him down.
Businessman-turned-rancher Curran Shaw is no stranger to
hard work, but women have never required much effort. When a mysterious
brunette at a resort-town Halloween party sparks his interest and then
vanishes, he vows to finish what she started. It’s finding her that’s going to
be the hard part.
He was her fantasy, and that’s all he could ever be.
Victoria Linden has reconstructed her life and soul from
the devastation wrought by an abusive ex and her own failures. She desperately
wants to be loved, but what man will agree to the control and limitations she
needs in order to hold herself together? Especially a man like Curran, who’s
used to getting whatever he wants. Walking away from him after a searing kiss
is her only option.
When serendipity brings them together in the snowy
mountains of Utah, will Victoria and Curran be able to mend the fences in their
hearts, or will discovery and heartbreak tear them apart?